Russo Brothers Talk the Stakes of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War

Fans should “expect to be shocked” by Avengers: Infinity War

While promoting the launch of SeeJee Studios in Beijing, China, directors Anthony and Joe Russo (via CBM) were naturally asked about their upcoming films Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, which they teased will shock audiences.

“The stakes of both Civil War and the Avengers: Infinity War movies are gonna be very high, and there will be a price to pay for the characters,” Joe Russo said. “And that’s the whole point of cumulative storytelling. We’re going to go on emotional journeys with these characters. We’ve got a lot invested in the emotion. We have a responsibility to be mindful of how these people feel about the characters and, at the same time, we also have a responsibility to carry through on the storytelling. As filmmakers, we believe in stakes. You can’t have good storytelling without strong stakes. So, there will be a price to pay, there will be a price to pay in Civil War. There will be characters who suffer in that movie, and he will come out of that movie and never be the same. And in Infinity War the stakes will be raised to a whole new level. People should expect to be shocked when they see those movies.”

Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote the script for Captain America: Civil War and will also pen the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, which the Russos will also direct.

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War will debut in theaters May 6, 2016 with Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 slated for release on May 4, 2018 and Part 2 to follow on May 3, 2019.

Marvel's Black Panther is still well-over two years away from its release and at this point very little is known about the film.

We know that its titular hero will make his debut in Captain America: Civil War, with Chadwick Boseman playing T'Challa and Black Panther will be the final film of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the grand Infinity War finale begins. Other than that, it's either a secret or it's undecided.

Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, recently shared some new details about the film. "This one is important," Feige tells Empire of Black Panther. "Not only do you get an unbelievable lead character, but you also get all of Wakanda which is a whole new setting and culture to explore.”

Despite the cast being unannounced and/or undecided, Feige assures it will be "primarily African-American." That will be another step in the diversity direction for Marvel films, which have become known for having white male actors front and center (often times named 'Chris'). Earlier this year, the announcement of Ant-Man and The Wasp marked Evangeline Lilly's Hope Van Dyne as the first heroine to be named in a Marvel Studios film's title.

Of course, we're also wondering how Black Panther will effect the grand scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's story leading into Infinity War. "It's a big geo-political action adventure that focuses on the family and royal struggle of T'Challa in Wakanda, and what is means to be a king," says Fiege. "T'Challa's story is very important to us as it links to the next Avengers films, which is why we brought it forward.”

Will the Guardians of the Galaxy appear in Avengers: Infinity War? It’s a question that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn hasn’t answered, and the Avengers: Infinity War directors Joe & Anthony Russo won’t answer either. However, they did give a pretty strong hint in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com before their New Orleans WizardWorld appearance.

When asked if they’ve had any talks of including the Guardians in Infinity War, Joe Russo responded, “That is another one that we would have to reserve as a surprise, but we will say this: People will not be disappointed in the amount of characters in the movie. The concept of Infinity War is that the Marvel universe unites to battle the greatest threat to the world and universe that you’ve ever seen, and we’re going to honor that concept.”

In regards to if they’ve started thinking about the more cosmic nature of Avengers: Infinity War as opposed to the grounded, gritty Winter Soldier and Civil War, Joe Russo said, “Yeah, we certainly have. I sat in the theater and watched Empire Strikes Back seven times in a row when I was a kid. Yeah, we're science fiction fans as well, Dungeons and Dragons. We collected all the books when we were kids. We had figurines. Anything that you could think of that has to do with fantasy or sci-fi or superheroes was in our universe. We're just going to approach the cosmic side with the same fervor that we did the earthbound work we've been doing. We also are going to work really hard to bring a psychological realism. We obviously can't bring a naturalism to it because it doesn't really exist outside of science fiction, but we can bring that psychological realism to it, to the characters, and that's going to be our focus.

"Also, it's going to be our focus to explore the cosmic side, applying the same rules that we like to apply to the last two films that we've done. It ends up being the rules of physics always apply or apply as much as we can get them to apply based on what we're doing.”

Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on May 4, 2018. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on May 3, 2019.

"Maybe some Avengers might not be around anymore," Joe Russo tells comic book convention audience.

Last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron ended with a new line-up for Marvel's premiere super team, and Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 will transform those supporting characters into prime time players, according to one of the movie's directors, Joe Russo.

"I want to see some storytelling from some of the secondary characters," Russo — who will share directing duties with brother Anthony, as with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the upcoming Captain America: Civil War — told fans during an appearance at the Wizard World New Orleans convention this weekend.

"We're focusing on that right now with Infinity War while we're breaking into those movies, is which characters can we pull to the forefront who potentially haven't had their own 'A' story arc to this point," he continued. "I think you'll see that the supporting Avengers are going to become primary Avengers."

If that sounds like Infinity War might have too many Avengers, Russo teased that won't be the case, saying "Everything is finite, right? Nothing can last forever … It's cyclical. Some new Avengers in [future movies] are going to become prominent and then maybe some Avengers might not be around anymore."

Perhaps the two-part Avengers: Infinity War will feature some suitably epic sacrifices from the likes of Iron Man, Thor or Captain America, just as the contracts for the actors playing those roles come to a conclusion…?

Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is scheduled for a May 2018 release. The Avengers will be seen next in Captain America: Civil War, released May 6.